Percival named in Super League Dream Team

Saints Mark Percival has been named in the the 2017 Super League Dream Team.

Castleford’s domination of the 2017 season is reflected in the Dream Team in which they boast six of the 13 representatives.

Full-back Zak Hardaker and scrum-half Luke Gale, both on the shortlist for the 2017 Steve Prescott Man of Steel, are chosen for the third time and are joined by their Tigers team-mates Michael Shenton, Greg Eden, Mike McMeeken and Grant Millington.

Castleford won the league leaders’ shield for the first time in the club’s history, finishing 10 points clear of second-placed Leeds, and take on St Helens on Thursday for a place in their first Grand Final.

Gale, currently sidelined following emergency appendix surgery, has broken the club’s points-scoring record this season while Eden is Super League’s runaway leading try-scorer in 2017 with 38 touchdowns, just two off the record set by his Castleford predecessor Denny Solomona 12 months ago.

There is also a place for Hull stand-off Albert Kelly, the other player in the running to be crowned Man of Steel after making a successful switch from Hull KR, while second-rower Ben Murdoch-Masila is the first Salford player to appear since David Hodgson in 2006.

The team, chosen by a panel of broadcasters and journalists in a secret ballot, features eight newcomers, including Huddersfield prop Sebastine Ikahihifo, and Leeds hooker Matt Parcell, while Wigan and England captain Sean O’Loughlin is selected for a sixth time.